Thursday, August 23, 2012

Now Hiring Amish Database Administrators, Inquire Within

Priest / Referee / Judge
No surprise that a candidate's morality is a crucial component to hiring someone for these jobs. But what about a database administrator?

Think about delivering business intelligence from a data warehouse as an assembly line:

Query the database for the raw records

Analyze the records

Create report from the analysis

Create action plan from the report

If you want to know what exactly happened during step 2, you could compare the changes from steps 1 and 3 to see what's different. Same with knowing what step 3 entailed. Comparing step 3 to the final product lets you see what went on during step 4. The ONLY step without transparency is step 1. That's where integrity comes in. Unless you plan a major project to test whether your database administrator is displaying honesty and competency, the best solution is to hire one with good morals*.

No post-modern DBAs need apply.

*What are good morals? From the film K-Pax:Dr. Mark Powell: How do you know right from wrong?Prot: Every being in the universe knows right from wrong, Mark.